I Love You But I Can't Breathe

Chapter One

"Are you lot getting married then?" Niall asked, eyebrows raising as he eyed up the new turquoise band around Harry's right hand ring finger. Harry hadn't stopped twirling it around his finger all night, and the little blue stone kept drawing Niall's attention.

Harry sighed, taking another sip of his beer. "This one says I'm too young to get married," Harry complained, bumping his elbow into Louis' side as he tried to hide a smile. "So we're engaged to be engaged." He rested back against his boyfriend, the exhausted couch springs groaning under their shared weight.  

"We've got all the time in the world, love," Louis replied, pulling Harry tighter to his chest- so close that the younger boy's body shifted a little with each breath Louis took. "No reason to rush into a wedding, everyone would be just be talking about us, wouldn't they? Nineteen year old getting married to a twenty two year old... just give it a few more years babe, there's no need to rush, I'm not going anywhere." Louis finished the last of his beer and set the bottle down on the wobbly end-table, freeing his hands to play with Harry's curls.

"But I wanna lock you down as soon as I can," Harry whined, nuzzling into Louis' neck. "You're so sexy... fuck." Harry nipped a little at the soft skin around Louis' neck, and pressed languid kisses against his shoulders. Louis thought about how glad he was that he'd decided to wear his Skate Tough shirt that day as the younger boy moved his mouth to his collarbones; he knew Harry loved him in loose tank tops. He felt a bit bad for Niall, who was awkwardly trying to look the other direction, but not nearly bad enough to push Harry away.

"Oh God," Niall said, shaking his head. "It's like I don't even live here. Liam!" he called out into the kitchen. "We're cutting Harry off now, alright, Payno? As for you," Niall told Harry, "no more pints until you keep your hands to yourself," Niall fought back a smile as Harry whined and stopped sucking lovebites onto Louis with a pout. 

Liam stepped out from the kitchen, popping open another beer for himself. "Is he in that touchy stage of drinking now?" He looked over at Harry who was rubbing his hands up and down Louis' thighs. "Ah," Liam said with an eyebrow raise. 

"Louis' thighs are my favourite though," Harry mumbled defensively.

"I think I genuinely could have gone my whole life without knowing that lovely bit of trivia," Liam said, settling back down into his chair next to Niall.  

"Plus mmm not even drunk," Harry murmured, curving even closer to Louis.

Niall rolled his eyes and smiled fondly.

"So any thought given to what we should do with Zayn's, um... with the spare room?" Niall asked, once Harry had slowed his sensual attack on Louis' upper body. "I've been looking for people to rent, but no one seems to be interested." He pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose, and Louis could see a muscle in his cheek twitch. He knew having to pitch in extra rent money every month was hitting Niall the hardest, and he'd been frantically looking for a new guy to fill Zayn's old room to get their rent back down to a manageable amount.

"Maybe Harry could move in- officially, I mean?" Louis asked tentatively, knowing he was already pushing the limits with how often Harry had been over in the past few months. It had just become so awkward trying to spent time at Harry's... they spent a lot of time fooling around in Harry's room, but the younger boy had a strong set of lungs on him, and had to have Louis' hand over his mouth most times just to try and keep quiet enough. Louis spent the whole time paranoid that Harry's mom was going to hear something, and never was able to relax enough to enjoy things as much as he knew he should.

Not that moving in together would just be about sex for Louis. He found some of his favourite memories were the mornings after Harry had visited for the night, when Harry would put on one of Louis' looser fitting pieces of clothing and sleepily make tea for the both of them, always a little bashful in the morning, usually finding a patch of sunlight to bathe in like a kitten. Louis loved being able to fall asleep next to Harry too, even though he sometimes stayed up a little longer to hear Harry talk in his sleep and ended up exhausted the next day.